German Postbank phishers arrested

German police have arrested five suspects of Internet-banking fraud that successfully targeted Postbank account holders. A sixth suspect is on the run, German news site Heise Online reports.

This summer Postbank (with 12m customers) suffered several phishing attacks from what they believed were internationally organised criminal groups. Account holders received an email written in poor German, warning them of a security risk, and asking for their PIN (personal identification number) and a TAN (transaction number) to resolve the problem.

In addition Trojans were installed that became active every time a Postbank customer established a network connection. This allowed the perpetrators to block the passing on of TAN numbers to the bank. Those numbers were then used to withdraw money for their own purposes. According to a Postbank spokesman the accumulated loss is estimated at €30,000. ®